General Comment""Andalucia" sheds more light on Bachmann's Spanish theme. Pitter-patter drums and a numbing guitar riff square off with wide-open choruses about a girl named Antonita and the album's most allusive lyrics. The summer of 1917 was "splendid" in Andalucia, the song asserts, presumably due to romance. This was a few years before Ernest Hemingway's arrival, and Spain was wracked with workers' strikes inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution. It's also the summer Manolete was born. The narrator, a matador himself, boldly challenges the "Miuras" -- Islero's breed of bull, and the most feared. But his prayers to Saint Veronica, who is credited with giving Jesus a kerchief to wipe his brow on the road to Golgotha, apparently go unanswered. For some reason (a wound, most likely), the young bullfighter must leave behind Antonita and his homeland for one year. "Andalucia" is a farewell love song."

General CommentI think this song references the Spanish Flu pandemic that swept the planet in 1918. This was a form of the H1N1 virus that was particularly virulent among young, healthy people and was fatal for 10-20% of the people who contracted the illness. So when he talks about 1917, one year, the doctor, praying to St. Veronica, etc-- he hopes to see his love in one year, but it's not to be, they are separated forever. So, yeah, get your flu shots, kids! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…